Indoor Plumbing

Before
indoor plumbing and central heating, rooms were heated by fireplaces and coal
or wood-burning stoves.

Bathing was done by bringing water in from an outside well or pump, heating
it on the stove, and then pouring it into a large tub. Because this was a
lengthy process, people bathed once a week or less.

Changes Come

By the turn of the century, indoor
plumbing brought water into buildings through pipes. With indoor plumbing came new ways for heating the water. Houses installed gas or electric water heaters and no longer had to use the stove. Indoor plumbing and water heaters made hot water spill from the faucets for bathing and washing, and warmed homes through radiators. The hot water for radiators was heated by the furnace in the basement. Flushing toilets meant Iowans no longer had to face cold weather and dark
nights when they needed to visit the outhouse.

Indoor plumbing was first installed in town and city houses. Throughout the
early 1900s, farm magazines published articles urging farm families to modernize
their houses. But even in 1940, most Iowa farms did not have indoor toilets,
showers and bathtubs.